 AUTHOR
PROFILE: Jennifer Echols
Author's Name: Jennifer Echols
Website: www.Jennifer-Echols.com
Jennifer Echols writes romantic comedy for teens and adults,
and her debut novel is now available from Simon Pulse.
New Release:
Major Crush
Simon Pulse, August 2006
Tired of the beauty-pageant circuit, Virginia Sauter tosses her
tiara, pierces her nose, and auditions for the most unlikely of
roles--drum major of the high school marching band.
Virginia wins, but is forced to share the title with Drew, whose
family has held the position for generations. Sure, Drew is hot,
but because of his superior attitude, he and Virginia are constantly
arguing. That is, until they share more than just their half-time
salute...
But as the drum majors' heated competition turns to sizzling romance,
explosive rumors threaten everything--including the band's success.
Love seemed to be a sure hit, but Virginia and Drew may be marching
straight into disaster.
On Writing
I’ve written as long as I can remember. My grandmother was
a big reader as well as a writer, so I guess I’ve always
linked those two activities together.
I’ve tried to write lots of different types of novels, but
the eventual choice of romance was inevitable. I can enjoy a book
without romance and a happy ending, but I can’t LOVE it.
On Her Writing Process
My writing process is a mess. It makes me cry. I’m caught
in a parallel universe between pantzer and plotter.
I jot down notes for a novel, plot points, conversations, details
about characters, all in a jumble. When I reach about 150 pages,
I can’t find anything anymore, so I try to put it in some
sort of order. This causes a nervous breakdown. I revamp the plot,
cut half of what I’ve written, start again, write happily
for another hundred pages, and suffer another nervous breakdown.
Rinse and repeat.
I’ve tried streamlining this process. I have all the books
and systems, believe me. I’ve written my chapters in order
and sent them to my critique partners as I finished them, like
a normal person. But this just doesn’t work for me. I’m
half-pantzer, so I don’t think of most of the cool details
of the book until I’m almost through. Nowadays I try to embrace
the madness.
I get my ideas from everywhere--other books that haven’t
*quite* done it right imho, newspaper stories, bits of my life
and my friends’ lives. This is the easy part. And the actual
writing of the book comes fairly easily, too. The hard part of
writing for me is turning that idea into a compelling plot.
On Writing Schedules
I write whenever I’m not working at my “real” job
as an editor or entertaining my 5-year-old son. So I get up at 4:30
a.m.
On Writer's Block
I have most of a PhD in rhetoric and composition, a subspecialty
of English that prepares you to be a college professor of nonfiction
writing (rather than a creative writing professor or a literature
professor). I have lots of tricks up my sleeve for overcoming writer’s
block, and I’ve never had a long period when I couldn’t
generate text.
But I do sometimes stumble over a plot point, or wonder where I
should go with a book generally. Last year, I actually stopped writing
a book because of this. But I plan to go back to it this year. I
think I was trying to hammer it into the wrong subgenre and make
it a book it didn’t want to be.
On Conferences and Contests
The first conference I attended was Nationals in Reno. I sold
my first book two weeks before that, so it had nothing to do with
my sale. But I was very happy to meet my agent!
I never entered the book that sold in a contest. I did enter some
previous books but didn’t final. And I thought I got a lot
of bad advice from judges (and some were just mean--a very low score
with absolutely no comments, and that sort of thing). But I found
contests invaluable for getting feedback from someone who didn’t
know me.
You’ve probably heard over and over that the comments you should
really pay attention to are the ones you get from more than one
person. The comment I kept getting was, “Your sentences are
too long.” What? These chicks just did not appreciate my gorgeous
prose! But I realized in the end that readers had to pause to figure
out my writing, which pulled them out of the story. They couldn’t
get immersed in the plot and characters. That was a valuable lesson,
and I always keep it in the back of my mind.
On Getting "The Call"
Absolutely awesome, a weight lifted from my shoulders. I was embarrassed
to admit this in the “First Sales” column of RWR, but
MAJOR CRUSH, my YA romantic comedy set in a high school marching
band, is my 10th book, and I’d been pursuing publication for
15 years when it sold.
On Being a Published Writer
The best thing is that I have more confidence in my writing, and
I’m more willing to take chances. Remember Jennifer Crusie’s
article in RWR about rats? Experiments show that when rats are placed
in a tank of water, if they’re allowed to touch solid ground
underwater just once, they will keep swimming twice as long. I’m
a rat.
The worst thing is that worrying about publicity for my book takes
up time I should be using to write.
The biggest challenge is keeping myself from checking my Amazon
sales rank every five minutes.
Best/Worst Advice Received
Write the book you want to read.
Other than a few contest judge comments, I actually can’t
think of any bad advice I’ve received. Some advice hasn’t
helped me personally, but I can see how it would help other people.
The trick is knowing yourself, knowing the industry, and knowing
what can help you.
On Promotion
I wish I knew the answer to this question, because it’s
driving me crazy. As I write this, my first book will be released
in two weeks, and I have no idea whether I’ve done too much
or too little, or whether anything I’ve done will help. I’m
planning to attend some workshops at Nationals in Atlanta on this
issue.
On Publishers
My publisher is Simon Pulse, the teen imprint for Simon & Schuster.
MAJOR CRUSH is the latest installment in an established line called
Simon Pulse Romantic Comedies, which includes books by Niki Burnham,
Kelly McClymer, Nancy Krulik, Aimee Friedman, and Johanna Edwards.
On Agents
Unless you want to write only for Harlequin/Silhouette--and maybe
even then--you need one. Query agents first. Then, when you think
you’ve exhausted your possibilities, you can always query publishers
that take unsolicited submissions. But if you query publishers first
and get rejected, agents can’t help you, because they’ll
have nowhere to send your novel. My agent is Nephele Tempest with
The Knight Agency.
What's Next?
My second YA novel is scheduled for publication with Simon Pulse
in Spring 2007. Right now I’m working on an adult romantic
comedy. I tend to write a YA, then an adult book, back and forth,
to keep my ideas fresh.
Any Advice for Aspiring Writers?
Don’t stop writing! It’s so much easier to give up
than to keep at this in the face of rejection. If you can walk
away, I’d advise you to run. But if you’re frustrated
and think you’ll just take a little break and come back to
writing later...don’t take that break. The only way to get
published is to keep sending your stuff out. If you’re a
good writer and stubborn, it will happen for you eventually. Though,
if your career path resembles mine, it may be more like eeeeeeevveeeeeeeeennttuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaalllllyyyyyyyyyy.
The Last Word
Thanks for being part of a wonderful writing community! This job
is so much more fun with friends. :)
Visit Jennifer online at www.Jennifer-Echols.com
(Interviewed August, 2006)
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